


i fear no fate

by armillarysphere



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: M/M, Romance, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-21
Updated: 2015-09-21
Packaged: 2018-04-22 15:53:53
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,738
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4841435
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/armillarysphere/pseuds/armillarysphere
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Let’s get married this summer,” Jeff said.</p><p>Mike smiled. “Okay.  Let’s get married this summer.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	i fear no fate

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Firefox](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Firefox/gifts).



> Thank you to L for her invaluable help and encouragement, including, but not limited to, talking me down from the ceiling, and also to A for the kind words and gentle reassuring when I was getting started.
> 
> Dear recipient, this is as fluffy as I could make it! I hope you like it :)

Mike’s been watching the clouds go past overhead for hours now, on his back on the dock, feet in the water, baking slowly in the sun. The air is still and calm, hazy with late summer heat, filled with the sounds of bugs chirping in the reeds beside him. There are people out on the lake, Mike can hear them in the distance, but he feels lazy today. He has nowhere else to be, nothing else to do. He’s content to lie here and wait for Jeff to get back from the grocery store with stuff for dinner. Mike hopes there’s ice cream too.

He lifts his left hand and looks at it, the ring on his fourth finger glinting in the sunlight. It still feels a little alien on his body, the pale gold standing out against his rough, summer-tan skin. He’s spent the week inspecting it, testing the weight of it when he lifts his arm, as though it would add anything. It’s less than an ounce of gold, but there’s everything behind it, all the other things that it means, that make Mike feel the pressure on his finger.

He wonders what Jeff would say if he swapped it for a tattoo, like so many of their friends and colleagues have done. He knows Jeff likes wearing his ring though, how proud he is to have this thin band of metal telling the world of the promise he’s made. He’d smiled so widely when Mike slid it onto his finger that Mike thought his face would split in half. 

_i carry your heart_ , Mike thinks, as clouds drift by overhead.

*

Jeff is barefoot in Mike’s kitchen, wearing shorts and a shirt that must be Mike’s because every time he reaches up to one of the high cupboards it reveals a strip of golden skin at Jeff’s waist that Mike’s eyes are drawn to automatically. Everything about Jeff is golden this summer. His hair, his skin, the ring Mike put on his finger. Mike keeps watching from the couch, leaning over the back, resting his chin on his arms. Jeff’s humming along to the radio, lost in whatever world he’s disappeared off into while he cooks.

Mike gets up when Jeff stands at the sink, running water into it to do the dishes. There’s a dishwasher but Jeff’s particular about what gets washed with dish soap. Mike’s had Jeff chew his ear off over him ‘ruining’ pans too many times in the past to argue with Jeff doing things the old-fashioned way. He crosses the room to Jeff, runs his hand up Jeff’s back, pushes his fingers into Jeff’s hair. 

Jeff turns at Mike’s touch, smiling, leaning into Mike’s side. He’s not just golden, he’s sunlight, he’s starlight. It’s almost too much for Mike to look at. He closes his eyes and tips his face up to Jeff’s, basking for a moment as he had done on the deck outside, feels himself melting when Jeff’s mouth touches his.

 _whatever a sun will sing is you_ , Mike thinks.

 

*

Mike watches the setting sun bounce off the lake’s surface, watches the glimmer of light on Jeff’s body as he cuts through the water, still golden, still luminous; bringing the horizon to Mike. They could’ve gone to any city, any country on honeymoon, but Jeff had looked at Mike and asked him if there was anywhere he really wanted to be more than the lake. 

They could be the only people on the earth and Mike wouldn’t care, probably wouldn’t even notice. He has Jeff, radiant and rapturous, nothing else matters. Nothing else makes him this happy, nothing else fills his world with this much light. There are crickets singing as Jeff takes Mike in his arms, kisses him with lips that taste of the earth and the sky, presses warmth into limbs cooled by the water around them. 

Jeff kisses him until the sun has sunk into the water, and when Mike opens his eyes again the moon has turned the world silver, the lake an inky blue-black around them. Mike shivers, trembles in Jeff’s embrace, neither of them moving more than it takes to stay afloat. Mike’s chest aches with love.

Jeff whispers in his ear, then swims towards the shore, keeping one hand in Mike’s, towing him along. Mike follows Jeff out of the water, up the steps to the verandah, watches the light from the citronella candles flicker across Jeff’s naked body as he leads Mike to the cabana. He submits to Jeff’s hands on him, drying him off, Jeff’s mouth placing kisses over his shoulders, his neck. He lies back and lets Jeff settle over him, legs spread to allow Jeff lie between them, runs his fingers up Jeff’s still-damp back. Jeff smells of the lake, of a thousand and one memories mixed up in Mike’s mind.

Jeff opens him up slowly, the rest of the world melting away from Mike as the moon rises higher overhead. He gives himself over to Jeff, again and again, back arching from the bed as Jeff’s careful fingers take him apart, leave him loose and ready for Jeff’s cock. He moans when Jeff pushes inside, fills up all Mike’s empty spaces, not just physically. There’s been a place in Mike’s heart and mind reserved just for Jeff for a long time.

Their bodies move together, gradually gathering speed; Jeff’s thrusts moving from languid to hard, deep snaps of his hips that have Mike crying out, dragging his nails down Jeff’s back. Each time Jeff pushes, Mike pulls, the two of them working together, harmonious, synchronised, and when Mike comes, Jeff is right there with him, filling Mike anew, spilling inside him.

Mike keeps Jeff there, presses breathless kisses to his temple, the side of his face, until Jeff stirs and settles next to him, drawing Mike close.

 _anywhere i go you go, my dear_ , Mike thinks.

*

Mike traces patterns on Jeff’s back while he sleeps, sprawled naked on top of the sheets, spread out for Mike to see and touch. Mike runs his fingertips over every inch he can reach, propped up on one elbow beside him, watching the gold on his finger against the gold of Jeff’s skin. He leans in and kisses Jeff’s shoulder, tastes sunshine in the sweat beaded there, the warmth of Jeff’s body seeping into his when he moves closer.

Jeff stirs and wakes, blinks open summer skies in the middle of the night, illuminates Mike’s world, his universe. Jeff reaches for him, takes him into an embrace, wraps arms and legs around him. Mike kisses Jeff again, feels the heat burn through both of them, passion fueling desire, making Mike ache for him. He kisses Jeff until he’s shaking with it, holds Jeff’s face in trembling hands and waits.

Jeff moves over him, takes his hand and laces their fingers over Mike’s head, presses his mouth to Mike’s neck as their bodies come together again. Mike lets him in, closes his eyes and basks once more, filled with light from his sun. When he opens them again, Jeff is looking back, beatific and beautiful.

 _for beautiful you are my world, my true_ , Mike thinks.

*

Mike drives with the windows rolled down, the hairs on his arm lifted by the breeze, warmed by the sun. Arnold is in the back, head out of the window in the same way that Mike’s arm is, his chin resting on the sill. They greet the neighbours as they pass at an intersection, and Mike sees the flash of his wedding ring as he raises his hand and wonders if they spotted it too, if it shines like a beacon for anyone else except Mike.

He calls in to see his parents, lets Arnold run around with his brother’s dog for a few minutes while he listens to his mother tell him how much he’s radiating happiness. Mike can’t help but smile, feeling his face heat up, and he busies himself with playing with the dogs for a moment.

When he looks up again, his mom is holding a small box out to him, faded red velvet that’s seen better days covering the outside. He thinks he’s seen it before but it’s not until he opens it that he recognises it. Inside, his grandfather’s pocket watch lies on a bed of silk, and a note proclaims “Welcome to the family, Jeff!”, making Mike’s heart stutter in his chest. He knows that Jeff’s been family for a lot longer than a week; they’ve been each other’s family since they were teenagers. 

_here is the deepest secret nobody knows_ , Mike thinks.

*

Mike sits next to Jeff on the back porch, overlooking the water, listening to the sounds of the boats and the people on the lake, the wind in the trees, Arnold snoring between their chairs. He thinks of all the years he has to come, all the years they’ll have together, sitting here like this, letting the world go by. He wants time to slow down and speed up at the same time; wants this moment, this week, to last forever, and yet he can’t wait to go through the rest of his life with Jeff, with this man he loves more than anything.

He turns away from the lake to look at Jeff, and finds Jeff already watching him, lips curved in a soft smile, the same way he’d looked at Mike when they’d got married, standing in front of the important people in their lives, baring their souls.

“What you thinking about, Richie?” Jeff says, reaching across the gap to take Mike’s hand. Mike looks down at the gold wrapped around Jeff’s finger for the millionth time and marvels at it.

“I’ve had that poem going around in my head all week,” Mike says, rubbing his thumb over Jeff’s ring a few times before he looks back up. “From the ceremony.”

Jeff smiles wider now, showing off his lack of teeth. He squeezes Mike’s hand. “Tell me it again.”

Mike’s throat is suddenly too tight to get the words out, but he swallows and shifts in his chair, turning more towards Jeff, and tells Jeff in someone else’s words how much he loves him.

“And this is the wonder that is keeping the stars apart,” Mike says, looking into Jeff’s eyes, burning bright like stars. “I carry your heart, I carry it in my heart.”

**Author's Note:**

> The poem that Mike quotes throughout is [i carry your heart with me(i carry it in](http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poem/179622) by e.e. cummings
> 
> and here is a video of a sunset over the Lake of the Woods: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PexKYPFie6Y


End file.
